


Two Thousand, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Six Days

by EmbraceoftheNight



Series: Reinhardt Focus [2]
Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Damsel in Distress, F/M, Reinhardt is a Knight, Rescue, princess in a tower, reader is a princess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-23
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-03 04:54:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12741390
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmbraceoftheNight/pseuds/EmbraceoftheNight
Summary: You've been trapped in this tower for-you guessed it-two thousand, eight hundred and sixty-six days. On the day of your twenty-fifth birthday, you didn't expect to have a stranger in your dragon-guarded castle.  But life manages to keep surprising you...plus, getting revenge on that stupid dragon is pretty fun.





	Two Thousand, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Six Days

_Day Number Two Thousand, Eight Hundred and Sixty-Six._

"What's two thousand, eight hundred and sixty-six divided by three hundred and sixty-five?" You wondered aloud, tapping your stick of chalk against your cheek. On the wall ahead of you were hundreds of white tally marks, signifying the years you'd spent locked away in this tower. "Let's see...five goes into two thousand...four hundred times? And there's four digits..." 

A dull spark flashed to life in your heart. If your math was correct, then today was your twenty-fifth birthday. Having been placed in this tower at the age of eighteen, that meant that today was your seventh year in this tower. 

_Hooray, seven years trapped in a stone tower with nothing but rats and a fire-breathing dragon for company. And the dragon only acknowledges me when I try to escape._

Yes, you'd attempted to escape. Several times. Upon first being imprisoned in this tower, you'd refused to accept your fate and made numberous plans to free yourself, but each one had failed. The latest of which had resulted in the loss of your left leg from the knee-down, and upon concluding that the dragon was done with your shenanigans, you gave up trying. Now your only hope was for some brave (or dumb) knight to come along and save you, or to die a painless death of old age, still locked in this tower. 

"Twenty-five." The words seemed to linger on your tongue, as though you expected more from them. But why would you? Today was just your normal, average, run-of-the-mill-

_CRASH_

_-_ ordinary day?

You fled to your barred window, which overlooked the entrance to the castle. The great wooden doors that stood at the front of the castle were reduced to splinters, and they seemed to be smoking. Not heavily enough to suggest that the dragon had done it, but something much smaller and less capable of producing flames. 

Your eyes went wide. Could this be? Was someone-a real, living person-here to rescue you?

Another crash, followed by a subdued thump. Then, the deep and bellowing voice of a man that seemed to ring through the ancient castle walls. 

A person. Another person. Your mind began to race, and one thought surfaced in the midst of your chaos; You had to get out of this room. That was no simple feat, but the thought of another person rampaging your prison fueled your haste. 

The wooden door was bolted shut with a heavy iron lock. What could you use to break it? You glanced around your room for something, anything, and your eyes fell upon a few items in particular: A silver mirror, a comb, a collection of jewelry and gems. Your washroom was fairly barren as well, but you had to make it work. Seizing the comb, you worked it under the bolts of the lock, prying and shifting in an attempt to break something. There was a quiet snap as the teeth of the comb broke, and you tossed it aside, useless. 

Another crash from below, this time farther than the ones previous. Did your captor not know where you were? You dropped to the floor in a frenzy, pressing your lips to the small space between the floor and the door.

"I'm right here!" You yelled, projecting as loudly as you could. "Up here! I'm in the north tower!" You crammed your fingers under the space as well, but you could find no way to use the sliver of emptiness to escape.

_Think, think, think! How can I get out of this room? There's someone down there battling a dragon for me, I have to go down and reach them, or they'll end up with much worse than a bitten-off leg..._

Leg. Leg! Your prosthetic leg! You hiked up the skirts of your gown and there it was, wooden and thick and stumpy. You'd fashioned it yourself from wood collected around your room, whether it be from the floorboards or from your bedpost, and it worked perfectly. If you were lucky enough, it would be big and broad enough to do what you most needed. 

Undoing the ribbon that kept your prosthetic in place, you hobbled over to the door, rapping against it with your knuckle. It wasn't very thick; Apparently its craftsmen had relied on the iron bolt to keep you inside. Clinging to that thought, you held your prosthetic in your arms and leaned back from the door, inhaling before leating at it and slamming the prosthetic into the wood. 

The door shuddered ever-so-slightly, and so you repeated the process again, twice, three times until visible splinters formed on its surface, and you were met with shock when a loud crack sounded and your prosthetic forced itself through the wood. With fumbling fingers you pressed against the newly-formed hole, widening it and pressing pieces off until you could finally squeeze through, your dress tearing on the bits of wood that remained.

"I'm coming! Don't worry!" You yelled, hurrying to grab your prosthetic. However, the moment you yanked it from the rubble, the prosthetic splintered into little more than firewood. Wasting no time, you tossed it aside and hurried down the stairs, clinging to the walls for support.

"I'm coming!" You called out, hoping that your captor could hear. You were unstable and wobbly on one and a half legs, and your heavy ballgown wasn't helping things, but you weren't going to let those slow you down. "I'm coming!"

You stumbled and lost your footing, falling down the remainder of the steps and landing in the wide space of the main ballroom. Opening your eyes, you saw a horrendous sight.

The dragon, its maroon scales flashing, had your savior pushed into a corner. It was still chained to its pillars, but you could see it preparing its first breath, rearing back its ugly head as your knight stood behind a translucent blue shield, an enormous hammer in one hand. He turned by his head and caught sight of you, freezing for an instant. 

In an instantaneous moment, your knight dropped his shield. The dragon threw forward a fireball, but your knight dashed and skated beneath the dragon's belly, sliding across the ground in a great screeching of metal against tile. The dragon's fire pursued him so closely that your heart raced with feverent speed, but your knight nonetheless made his way to you in a rain of sparks. He leapt to his feet, offering a huge hand and helping you to your feet, oddly courteous in such a distressing time.

"Greetings, your Heighness!" He boomed. "I am here to escort you to safety."

"The dragon!" You cried, pointing to the beast bearing down upon you.

He threw his head back in a laugh. "Ah, that oversized lizard? I'll have him dealt with in no time!"

Before you knew it, the knight had swooped you up and thrown you over one shoulder, holding his hammer with the other. 

"Wait, what're you doing?!" You asked, craning your neck to get a view of the action.

"Hold on tight!" was his only reply. 

The knight dashed once more, evading the dragon's footsteps as it searched madly for him. He leapt behind a pillar and stood still for a moment, waiting as the dragon searched the room for him. 

"What's your plan?" You whispered, still slung over the knight's shoulder.

The knight paused for a moment, surveying the scene. "I can't kill it, it's too large to take down. However," he adjusted his hammer in his grip. "I can distract it."

"That's not very explanatory." You pointed out.

He chuckled. "I think I chose the right princess to rescue today."

The knight's eyes settled upon a torch in a bracket just a few feet away from yourselves. Though you couldn't see his eyes through his stiff silver helmet, you knew he was thinking. He suddenly set you down behind a great stone pillar, with an odd gentleness for such a tense situation.

"Wait here,  _Prinzessin._ I will only be a moment!" He said, and you could hear the smile in his voice.

Without warning, the knight seized the torch and yelled, " _Hier drüben_ , you great brute!"

The dragon immediately snapped towards him. With his hammer, the knight slammed down on his chestpiece to produce a loud, taunting battle call.

"Come and get me!"

 As soon as the dragon grew near enough, the knight threw the torch towards it with expertise aim. The torch soared through the air and hit the dragon directly in its right eye, causing an enormous roar of pain that shook the walls.

"I'm not finished with you yet, you over-sized salamander!" Seizing the moment, your knight charged towards the dragon, swiping against one of its legs and causing it to stumble for a moment. Your knight took the opportunity to leap up and grab one of the dragon's spines running down its back, hauling himself onto his back as the beast thrashed wildly.

"Aha, bring it on! I live for this!" Screamed the knight, seeming more like a man riding a mechanical bull than a hero riding a bloodthirsty beast. The knight raised his hammer and struck down on the dragon's head, causing yet another yelp of pain. He slammed down on the beast's head once more, and its front legs gave way, its head hitting the floor with an enormous thump.

The knight took a breath and stepped forward. The dragon seemed terribly weak, blinded in one eye, and its hind legs were quaking with the struggle of upholding its own weight. Smoke poured from its nostrils in small puffs, and though it struggled against the man on its back, its efforts were weak.

That was when you noticed something long and red slithering like a snake behind the beast. The dragon's tail, lined with several thick plate-like spines, was slowly waving back and forth, preparing to strike. Its one good eye was fixated on the man above it, completely unaware that the dragon was plotting something.

"I-Watch out!" You yelled, stumbling forwards as quickly as you could. The knight turned, but he was too late. The tail swung towards him in a long arc, striking him square in the chest and knocking him into the wall on the other side of the ballroom. 

"No!" You yelled, reaching out for the knight. He was stirring feebly, clearly getting over the shock of the impact. You weren't sure if he was going to be okay, but you had other problems at the moment. 

The dragon had found its strength, and it has refocused its efforts on its nearest target; you. Paralyzed by the sight of it drawing up before you, you hesitated before trying to run, although your efforts were futile. Sharp teeth snatched your good leg, throwing you to the floor as the dragon dragged you back towards him. A long, cool tongue snaked itself around your body, hauling you up into the dragon's open, waiting mouth.

"No! No!" You cried out, desperately searching across the room for your knight. He was still lying in the rubble, quivering and groaning faintly.

"Help!" You called out, propping two hands up against the roof of the dragon's mouth. "Help me! Please!" 

The dragon's strength was slowly overpowering your own, forcing your elbows to bend as the jagged yellow teeth drew closer and closer to your flesh. Tears were running down your face now, tears of sheer terror. This dragon had already taken your leg and now it was going to take you too, and with freedom so close you could almost taste it-

" _No!_ "

The ferocious voice of your knight rang across the room, so fiercely protective that even the dragon paused to turn towards the noise. Your knight was on his feet once more, obviously injured but holding his own nonetheless. His helmet had come off, and now you could see an expression of pure anger etched across his face, and he-

This wasn't the time to be thinking this, but your knight...he was an older man, likely in his sixties, with a thick white beard and a scar running over a blinded eye. Even in the face of utmost death, you couldn't help but think it;  _He was gorgeous._

"You...you  _will not harm her_!" 

With another expertise throw, the knight hurled his hammer into the open jaws of the dragon. You were barely able to avoid it as it lodged itself between two of the dragon's teeth, leaving the beast unable to close its mouth. It thrashed its head about wildly, and you let out a yelp as you were thrown towards the ground...only to be swiftly caught by your knight.

"Let us get out of here while it is distracted!" He scooped you up into his massive arms and sprinted for the exit as you clung to him for dear life. You didn't look back at the castle, even when the clattering of chains and the roaring of the dragon echoed behind you. As the sounds faded to the repetitive clinking of your knight's armor, something you hadn't felt for a long time-peace-befell you.

Without warning, you placed a kiss to the knight's cheek. He blushed a bit, turning his head to gaze at you.

"Thank you...for rescuing me" you said, quite sheepishly.

He gave you a glittering smile. "Ah, it was nothing, Princess. By the way, I don't think I've introduced myself. My name is Reinhardt Wilhelm, agent of Overwatch and a former Crusader."

"Reinhardt Wilhelm" you repeated. The name was oddly fitting for such an enormous yet gentle man.

You smiled, settling back into his arms. You had a good feeling about this guy.

 


End file.
